Tag Archives: Thoughts

PROMPT: 30 Things

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Daily writing prompt
List 30 things that make you happy.
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1.) love; 2.) a glorious turn of phrase; 3.) discovery; 4.) walking; 5.) swimming; 6.) stumbling upon an interesting and / or novel idea; 7.) movement; 8.) travel; 9.) street food; 10.) quiet; 11.) health; 12.) recognition that when things are at their very worst, they must get better — because everything is impermanent; 13.) an intense stretch; 14.) Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass;” 15.) undiscovered country; 16.) the hanging moment; 17.) a mystery-laden world; 18.) a moment of flow; 19.) a mountain path; 20.) a clear stream; 21.) the way of non-adversariality; 22.) a thing stripped to its simplest form; 23.) the moment breath turns the tide; 24.) animals being animals; 25.) a brief instant of free fall; 26.) the recognition that something that used to cause me angst or fear no longer does; 27.) when body, movement, and the world fall into alignment; 28.) first contact with someplace / something new; 29.) connection; 30.) the first sign that the struggle is paying off.

PROMPT: Dinosaur

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If you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?
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Do not make me bring Jeff Goldblum up in here. [No wonder they are still rebooting those movies every two years, people are not getting the message.]

PROMPT: 10 Things

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List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

1.) Nothing is permanent.

2.) The world is not what it seems.

3.) One’s subjective experience is not determined by the state of the world.

4.) Nobody grasps enough truth to be intolerant.

5.) Uncertainty is the root of all fear.

6.) Fear is the root of all hatred.

7.) Hatred is a subjective experience (See #3.) Also, uncertainty is the root of all hatred (by the transitive property,) hence the benefit of travel.

8.) Any who: a.) has suffered a string of hardships; b.) allows themselves to believe that some “other” is wholly responsible for said hardships; and c.) who lacks a sufficient sense of self-empowerment to avoid surrendering entirely to a group identity can (and likely will) become a Nazi (or the equivalent of their day.)

9.) No one can predict the future. [Regardless of how much we all love to try. (See #5.)]

10.) Entropy increases (ultimately, in a closed system.)

NOTE: I remain ready to abandon any certainty in the face of better information.

PROMPT: Security or Adventure

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Are you seeking security or adventure?
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Not sure what to do with this one. It reads to me much as would, “Would you prefer air or water?”

Empty Chairs [Free Verse]

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I watch the chairs
   That watch the ocean,
 Wondering whether 
   Some passerby will take 
   A seat to admire
      The turquoise water
      & crashing surf.

No one does.

Tourist and local alike
   Spill by in a rush to get
   Through paradise to
   Somewhere else --
   Probably a cruddy
       Hotel room or
       Unloved job. 

Of course, if someone 
   Did take a seat,
   They might be run off
   On the grounds that
      These are proprietary
      Chairs.

[That's just the petty world
   In which we live;
      Where a business will
      Protect its space for 
      Exclusive use by 
      Nonexistent customers.]

One might suggest that
   It's too hot to sit 
   And admire the ocean,

But by the time those chairs
   Have cooled,
   The view will be 
      Blackness.

On Tourists & Travelers [Free Verse]

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A tourist looks back fondly upon 
      A favorite destination;
 A traveler is always at it. 

A tourist loathes travel hiccups;
 A traveler calls them stories.

A tourist jumps from one
      Postcard vista to the next;
 A traveler moves through the world.

A tourist collects knicknacks & geegaws;
 A traveler collects experiences.

A tourist, between sights, seeks
      A life experience as close to 
      Their homelife as possible.
 A traveler wants a life experience
      As close to local as possible.

A tourist has a favorite meal;
 A traveler assumes he hasn't
      Crossed paths with it yet.

A tourist leaves nothing to chance;
 A traveler embraces the spontaneous.

A tourist takes comfort as a main course;
 A traveler uses it like a condiment.

PROMPT: All

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What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?
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Health, food, air, water, love, and thought… that about covers it.

Sure, why not?

PROMPT: Belongings

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What personal belongings do you hold most dear?
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I do have a jō (short wooden staff) of which I’m fond. I crave books, but since I could care less whether I read them as paper or on a screen and gladly give any but those with long-term reference value away after reading, I don’t think they count.

Being fonder of ideas than anything material, I like the story about Diogenes the Cynic who, upon seeing a boy drink from cupped hands, threw away his cup in self-anger for being such a hoarder.

The Curse [Lyric Poem]

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Knowledge can be a wicked curse,
  Like gold coins in a sturdy purse.
 Tied up -- inviolably pent --
  To be rattled... but never spent.

“Lament I” [感遇一] by Zhang Jiuling [张九龄]

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A lone goose flies in from the sea,
 Not daring to land in water.
 Glimpsing a pair of Kingfisher --
 Nested Three Pearl Tree squatters --
 It asks, "High up in that rare tree
 Of gold spheres, are you not afraid?
 Fancy clothes incur points and jeers
 And those high up are harshly weighed.
 As I roam dark rivers and hills,
 Envious hunters give me chills."

This is the first of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首] and it is also the first of a quartet of poems. The original poem in Simplified Chinese:

孤鸿海上来， 池潢不敢顾； 
侧见双翠鸟， 巢在三珠树。 
矫矫珍木巅， 得无金丸惧？ 
美服患人指， 高明逼神恶。 
今我游冥冥， 弋者何所慕？